MCMINNVILLE, Ore. – Top-seeded Linfield defeated #2 Whitworth 5-0 in the championship match of the Northwest Conference women's tennis tournament to earn the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III tournament. 

The visiting Pirates' nine-match winning streak came to an end and their season ends with an 11-6 record.  The Wildcats improved to 13-2.

Linfield swept the doubles matches, but the Pirates had a chance to win at #1.  Aleah Kert and Avery Liening took a 6-3 lead against Tessa Kern and Lexi Matsunaga, but the Wildcats' #1 pair won the final five games to rally to an 8-6 victory.

The #2 doubles match was done first as Linfield's Taryn Fujimori and Haley Fujimori defeated Whitworth's Hannah Plank and Lauren Ikeda 8-4.  Maggi Fiocchi and Allena Wong beat the Pirate pair of Froukje Lakerveld and Kyndal Locati 8-2 at #3.

Linfield needed to win only two of the six singles matches to clinch the team victory.  The Wildcats got their first singles point at #3 where Matsunaga defeated Plank 6-0, 6-1.  Kern followed with a 6-0, 6-3 win over Liening at #1 to clinch the team victory.

All other singles matches went unfinished.  Kert was winning 6-3, 1-0 at #2 singles when it was stopped.  Locati and Wong were tied 4-4 in the first set at #5.  Ikeda was behind 6-1, 1-2 at #4, while Lakerveld trailed 6-3 at #6.

Whitworth will return nearly its entire roster in 2021-22.  Liening is the only graduating senior on the team.